Home > Social Media Tourism Symposium (#SoMeT13US) arrives in Huntsville Nov 6-8 Leaders encourage community to welcome attendees using the hashtag #SoMeT13US

Social Media Tourism Symposium (#SoMeT13US) arrives in Huntsville Nov 6-8 Leaders encourage community to welcome attendees using the hashtag #SoMeT13US

November 5, 2013

(Huntsville, AL) – The conference that the Madison County community voted to bring to the Rocket City last spring, the Social Media Tourism Symposium, begins Wednesday, November 6 and lasts through Friday, November 8. Huntsville received close to 30,000 votes during the competition among 12 other cities across the United States to win the right to host the conference that is expected to bring hundreds of thousands of dollars in economic impact to Madison County. The hashtag used to discuss the conference on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram is #SoMeT13US.

Three community representatives will tell the story of how Huntsville won #SoMeT13US in the first presentation of the conference entitled “The #SoMeT13US Story.” Jessica Carlton, Marketing Manager at the Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB), Leslie Walker, Convention Sales Manager at the Huntsville/Madison County CVB, and Charity Stewart, Advertising and Social Media Manager at the U. S. Space & Rocket Center, have the honor of discussing how the Rocket City, Madison County and the state of Alabama pulled together to bring the conference to Huntsville.

Judy Ryals, President/CEO of the Huntsville/Madison County CVB, expressed her gratitude to the city, county and state community for voting for Huntsville to host the Social Media Tourism Symposium.

“It’s awe-inspiring to see what this community can do when it sets its mind to something,” Ryals said. “From round one to round four, this community stuck with us and rallied to bring this conference, its economic impact and its online exposure home to the Rocket City. We couldn’t be more grateful for our community’s support and winning effort.”

Huntsville’s Mayor Battle was one of the biggest proponents of the campaign to bring #SoMeT13US to Huntsville and stressed the importance of the community welcoming them with open arms while they are here.

“Huntsville is sublimely southern, extremely social, and smart in technology,” Mayor Battle said. “I encourage our citizens to take to their preferred devices and give a big southern, social, high-tech welcome to our visitors from the Social Media Tourism Symposium using the hashtag #SoMeT13US.”

Dave Serino, the founder of the Social Media Tourism Symposium and Strategist and Educator at Think! Social Media, expressed his excitement for #SoMeT13US to come to fruition in the Rocket City.

“We’re really excited to see this event come together,” Serino said. “The people in Huntsville have been so welcoming and supportive over the last few months – and it’s really appreciated. This is our fourth U.S. event and Huntsville has been the most enthusiastic to-date.”

The Social Media Tourism Symposium is a conference exploring social media tools and strategies in the tourism industry. Aimed at tourism professionals looking to share ideas, network and discover opportunities using social media, #SoMeT13US is in its fourth year.

Last year’s host city, El Paso, TX, received extensive online coverage from attendees tweeting, posting and sharing information and photos about the city. Online coverage of last year’s host city reached nearly 1 million people on Twitter with over 10 million online impressions. Seven hundred Instragram photos were posted.

From March 13 to April 2, 2013, Huntsville went head to head with 12 cities across the U.S. including Indianapolis, Cleveland and Missoula, Montana. In each round of the NCAA-style tournament, Huntsville emerged victorious.

The community event website OurValleyEvents.com has put together a guide just for #SoMeT13US attendees that includes dining and attraction guides and more. The #SoMeT13US Guide can be found at http://ourvalleyevents.com/somet13us/.

For more information, please contact Jessica Carlton, Marketing Manager at the Huntsville/Madison County CVB, by e-mail at jessica@huntsville.org or by phone at 256.551.2294.

Be sure to connect with the CVB on Facebook and Twitter for updates on what’s going on in Huntsville/Madison County, travel-related news and upcoming meetings and conference information.

The Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) is a non-profit 501(c)(6) organization which was developed in 1970 to create economic growth for Huntsville/Madison County by marketing the community as a top-of-mind convention and visitor destination. As the official city/county agency which promotes the area as a tourist destination and convention site, the CVB works with an array of hospitality industry partners to market our destination to visitors of all types.